Increasingly, in the current competitive business climate, there is a profit driven motive to maximize the profitability of goods and services that are provided or marketed to potential or existing customers. The marketing pool for a product that is marketed to customers, who may accept the product, can be very large, such as on the order of tens of millions of customers. As such, the ability to market a specific product or service to a particular customer(s) from a portfolio of possible offers, in order to maximize the profit obtained for that portfolio of products or services, becomes increasingly complex and time consuming as the numbers of products and customers increase.
Using a profit model for a particular product, provided the product is the only possible product for marketing, it is relatively easy to identify the most profitable customers by using the profit model to rank-order candidates by the predicted profit associated with each particular customer and associated product.
While the marketing problem of maximizing the total profit of one product is relatively easy, maximizing the total profit of multiple product offerings to multiple customers becomes increasingly complex. Accordingly, when multiple products are marketed simultaneously, maximizing the marketing profit of each product on an individual basis (e.g., one by one) will generally not maximize the total portfolio marketing profit.
For instance, FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate a simple example of the aforementioned problem when multiple products are marketed simultaneously, wherein maximizing the marketing profit of each product on an individual basis (e.g., one by one) will generally not maximize the total portfolio marketing profit.
FIG. 7A illustrates the situation where two different products (e.g., products A and B) are marketed to four different consumers or customers (e.g., customers 1–4), wherein (1) each customer is to receive only one product offer, and (2) two of each product is offered or sold to the customers. As illustrated in FIG. 7A, the maximum profit extracted from customer 1 is with product A (57); the maximum profit extracted from customer 2 is with product B (35); the maximum profit extracted from customer 3 is with product A (32); and the maximum profit extracted from customer 4 is with product B (8), as two of each product must be offered or sold to the customers. As such, in FIG. 7A, the total maximum profit achieved in this example is: 57+35+32+8=132.
FIG. 7B illustrates an example, which the present invention is directed to, where the two different products (e.g., products A and B), from FIG. 7A, are marketed to four different consumers or customers (e.g., customers 1–4), wherein (1) each customer is to receive one product, and (2) two of each product is offered or sold to the customers. As illustrated in FIG. 7B, the maximum profit extracted from customer 1 is with product A (57); the maximum profit extracted from customer 2 is with product B (35); the maximum profit extracted from customer 3 is with product A (29), instead of product B (32); and the maximum profit extracted from customer 4 is with product B (26), this combination of products and customers satisfies the requirements of having two of each product being offered or sold to the customers. As such, as illustrated in FIG. 7B, the total maximum profit achieved in this example is: 57+35+29+26=147, which is about a 10% higher profit than total maximum profit of example of FIG. 7A.
As illustrated by the above example in FIG. 7A, the maximum profit determined from the process of maximizing the marketing profit of each product on an individual basis (e.g., one by one) generally does not maximize the total marketing profit. Rather, in support of this assertion, as clearly illustrated by the example of FIG. 7B, it is possible to maximize the total marketing profit using a technique other than the process commonly used in maximizing the marketing profit of each product on an individual basis (e.g., one by one), which generally does not maximize the total marketing profit, as illustrated in the comparison of total profits of the examples of FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B.
Moreover, the ability to maximize profits with operations involving selling multiple products to multiple customers under the objective of maximizing the total profit to the client (e.g., financial institution) is further complicated by such considerations and constraints as individual customer restrictions, policy, and/or product restrictions.
For instance, some operations necessitate consideration of such restrictions as individual customer restrictions, marketing resource restrictions, and marketing policy restrictions, which may need to be considered in or during the operational process.
In order to be a viable operation with the ability to maximize profits with operations involving selling multiple products to multiple customers under the objective of maximizing the total profit to the client (financial institution), the operation must generally contend with: (1) the complex mathematical/statistical problem of maximizing the total profit of multiple product offerings offered to multiple clients, which becomes increasingly complex with the addition of more products and clients; and (2) the problem of incorporating consideration restrictions such as individual customer restrictions, marketing resource restrictions, and marketing policy restrictions, which may need to be included in the operational process.
Currently, there are a variety of different techniques used by individuals and businesses, which attempt to maximize profits in situations involving multiple product offerings offered to multiple clients. Presently, the various techniques employed to maximize profits, however, generally fail to actually maximize overall profits, which results in unnecessary lost profits to the client (e.g., financial institution).
It is therefore desirable to provide a technique that provides clients with the ability to effectively maximize profits in operations involving selling multiple products to multiple customers under the objective of maximizing the total profit to the client offering the products to customers.